Forming a definitive judgment without firsthand experience sounds .....weird.

In short, MSFS deserves to be evaluated by flying in it, not just watching it. I’d encourage you to give it a try — even a short flight in a study-level aircraft like the PMDG 777,737 or Fenix A320 might change your perspective. You might be surprised by how deep and realistic the experience really is.

And if you still don’t enjoy it — which is understandable, though a bit surprising since you haven’t actually used it — there are always options out there, including the ones you mentioned. Either way, happy flying!

 

1 hour ago, OAL809 said:

However, I’ve never used Microsoft Flight Simulator—neither the 2020 version nor the upcoming 2024 release.

 

I I have counter proposal to improve X-plane 2012. However, I never used X-plane 2012. 

1 hour ago, OAL809 said:

However, I’ve never used Microsoft Flight Simulator—neither the 2020 version nor the upcoming 2024 release.

You’ve never used it. The rest of your screed is pointless. 
 

AI is destroying the net. 

40 minutes ago, OAL809 said:

 This topic is not for comparing, talking about who is bigger, or making comments like "make your own sim" or "wake up.

You are correct but you don't seem to have enough self awareness to realise you've created a topic inviting scorn and derision upon yourself. 

So...despite never having actually owned or used either MSFS 2020 nor 2024 you've managed to accumulate some remarkably detailed but remarkably ill informed opinions from....YouTube.

This is a actually a topic about delusion....

31 minutes ago, OAL809 said:

This topic is not for comparing

Meanwhile...

"Compare that to the new X-Plane weather system".

Seriously, though, you can't legitimately start a critical topic about software you don't use and have never used, especially to say:

1 hour ago, OAL809 said:

Even when braking, the simulation doesn't feel realistic.

You can't comment on how braking feels by watching YouTube videos.

Ignoring the logic of your writing, if we consider the points holistically, you can't compare one simulator to another without understanding the different complexities of each in relation to the limitations of current hardware. For example, the visual simulation might be of a higher quality on one simulator compared to another – X-Plane and MSFS, for example – because X-P has the processing resources available to present a more realistic windshield-rain interaction because MSFS is using the available resources to do something that X-P isn't.

Take weather and sky simulation on its own. What MSFS does with weather and volumetric clouds, especially taking into account the world and aircraft simulation combined alongside it, is nothing short of phenomenal. True, realistic volumetric cloud simulation – with absolutely nothing else going on; no weather, no world; no avionics or cities or rainbows and rain; just clouds with accurate light scattering – is not even possible on current home computer hardware. Think about that. So I'll say again, what Asobo have done is stunning, even if not perfect.

So, what one simulator chooses to prioritise may not be what another simulator prioritises. No simulator can currently do absolutely everything and do it completely realistically.

Their not wrong about the weather though.

Edited November 4, 2025Nov 4 by pan pan pan

Never used MSFS 2020 or 2024, but came on here to feign concerns about them based purely on watching YT videos, and then praise another sim for supposed advantages while at it. Gee I wonder what your objectives here are 🤣

Sorry, can't take you seriously in the least. C+ for effort though.

Re: some his "points":

• The weather engine - yes it can use improvements, especially in its depiction of live weather ever since the regressing that happened in MSFS 2020 SU7. But it's still a stellar weather engine as evidenced when using manual weather (both depiction and effects on flight.. it's how add-ons like Active Sky is able to improve live weather by using the sim's manual weather config/controls). That said, live weather depiction has improved a lot since the SU7 regressions, though not completely back to pre-SU7 levels.
• The lighting engine - already good in 2020, and greatly improved in 2024 with an all new photometric lighting engine. No, it's not "definitely unrealistic", that's just silly hyperbole.
• Ground handling - vastly improved in 2024, and a subset of those capabilities got backported to 2020. Aircraft devs need to take advantage of the new features, as some have already both in the default fleet and 3rd party offerings. The default C172, the iniBuild aircraft like A340/A300/A350, Fenix A320, Black Square Baron and others, and various other already use the enhanced ground physics.
• Visual effects - sorry disagree, MSFS is the best out there in terms of the current sims when it comes to these things, especially 2024

Edited November 4, 2025Nov 4 by lwt1971

This thread needs to be locked

Just curious, How did you call them?  I mean "A Call to Asobo" feels like it should be placed to Asobo directly rather than to a 3rd party forum full of other users... 

Maybe you should go tell them that you haven't used their software but have a number of complaints in the official forums...

Incidentally, while my car was being worked on today I walked into a competitors dealership and told them that I had no experience with their cars but watched a bunch of videos and had a number of requests.

They took me about as seriously as your whole post deserves to be taken in here in it's current context LOL 

3 hours ago, OAL809 said:

Hello fellow simmers,

I've been flying since the FS2000 era, and I can confidently say that flight simulation as a platform and community has made huge strides forward. However, I’ve never used Microsoft Flight Simulator—neither the 2020 version nor the upcoming 2024 release. That said, I still watch hundreds of videos about the new platforms and their addons.

Unfortunately, what I’ve noticed is that MSFS feels more like a toy simulator. It seems the company is leaning toward an Xbox/PS5-oriented experience, likely for extra revenue, which has disappointed the core flight sim community. I’m hoping for major improvements in the future, especially in the following areas:

 

The Weather Engine

The weather engine isn’t as good as it seems. Just look at the high-altitude thunderstorms and cloud formations like CBs—they’re not convincing. Compare that to the new X-Plane weather system: it’s night and day. That’s real flight—you have to deal with hazards like weather. In this regard, MSFS falls short. Even the weather radar, in my opinion, lacks accuracy.Even when braking, the simulation doesn't feel realistic. The aircraft doesn't respond with proper deceleration, especially in icy or wet conditions, which makes the experience less immersive.

The Lighting System

The lighting system is definitely unrealistic. You’ll probably agree that difficulties arise when moving around the ramp—the overall feeling just doesn’t seem accurate. Again, compare it to other flight simulators and you’ll notice the difference

Ground Handling
As you can see when flying or watching videos, ground handling issues—like rudder response and friction—still haven’t been properly addressed. The simulator needs better tire grip and more realistic rolling resistance.

Visual Effects

Rain and snow effects on the windshield in MSFS still feel underdeveloped. The way precipitation hits and moves across the glass lacks realism—there’s no convincing streaking, smearing, or dynamic visibility changes. In real-world flying, these effects are critical for immersion and situational awareness, especially during taxi, takeoff, and landing. Other simulators have done a better job simulating how weather interacts with cockpit surfaces. MSFS needs improvement in this area to match the visual fidelity of its environment.

I hope these concerns reach the right people at Asobo and lead to improvements in these and other areas of the MSFS platform. Of course, feel free to add your own suggestions for what needs improvement.

Have nice flights!

 

We are all aware of the shortcomings of both MSFS20/24 and XP12. It's up to you to choose the simulator that fulfills your preferences. You want good weather for a particular flight? Load XP12. You want awesome VFR experience with great GA addons? Load MSFS with BS, COWS or A2A. You want good ground handling? Load XP12 or even Aerofly FS 4 (yes, I'm serious).

About visual effects, well I don't want to recommend any sim, as it's completely a matter of preference. Remember what we had just 5 years ago in the form of XP11 and FSX/Prepar3D v4/v5. Remember properly what we really had in visual effects department, and then come back to comment again. I bet you would hug MSFS or XP12 with a smile on your face.

Yes, the times were changed, technology moved forward, but personally, I will never complain about windshield effects, as I had none in my XP11 VR sessions I flew just few months back. 

Simply, you expect too much. Get used to the fact that every flight sim platform is a work in progress, and bunch of features will not be finished, EVER. Sounds weird? It sure does. It's not a first person shooter game with linear level design. IT's not even a complex open world RPG game with couple of choosable characters. It's a freaking flight sim platform that simulate the whole globe, with hundreds of aircraft addons, thousands of flight model variables and ways that each addons can be customized. There is a huge chance that something will not work, or it will be broken.

And on top of all, Microsoft chose Asobo for such an enormous task. Why? It's beyond me honestly, only Microsoft knows. Asobo jumped into the fire with little to no knowledge about the genre, and honestly they did an amazing job in many areas. Yes, physics could be better, especially ground handling. Yes, weather simulation could be better, but the weather providers Microsoft found and chose have limitations in their data. Asobo can't just put cloud turbulences and CBs randomly. They want a DATA for it. It's not hard to guess that data doesn't exist from the weather data provider.

The biggest caveat I have with Asobo is that they are completely deaf and blind on such crucial things like ground friction, and some incredibly annoying bugs like the one when you hold right mouse button to pan the view while flying, you can't control the aircraft. Yes, none of the control surfaces will not react while you are holding the right mouse button. Laughable. But it is what it is. 

Don't let me start on XP12. They released it in alpha stage, and now 12.3 is practically a beta build, without exaggeration. So many things to fix. Awful AA, default scenery tech from pre-2010, awful VR optimizations, bad multicore utilization, low poly terrain mesh, etc etc.
Generally, the devs do this often. They release the game/sim in beta or even alpha stage, to earn a ton of money, and then collect the bug reports over a course of couple of years to fix hopefully majority of them. It's a standard practice nowadays. I bought 2024 literally the first day after the release as I'm a dev, and I need it for testing purposes mostly. Speaking of 2024, it was even in the worse state on release comparing to XP12. It's just mindblowing how bad it was on release. And I'm not talking about server issues.

So, be happy that we have 4-5 sims to choose. You have MSFS 20 and 24, XP11 and XP12, and Aerofly FS 4 (which is better in few regards than both sims). 

And yes, I'm aware that mixing some features from all three platforms into one sim would be ideal but it's equal to a miracle. 

Learn to adapt.

Edited November 4, 2025Nov 4 by Pe11e

Quite frankly I'm amazed how many people are spending their valuable time to answer a troll (or an AI).

1 hour ago, OAL809 said:

Hello fellow simmers,

The majority here can see the intentions behind your post....

MSFS20 and MSFS24 are the top "2" selling sims with millions of users and now with MSFS24 on 3 major platforms (PC, XB, & PS).

We can compare all day and claim that MSFS is not this or that, but we cannot ignore the facts in bold above. So apparently MSFS is doing something (or some things) right. Asobo got the "call"...by the millions. 

1 hour ago, tpete61 said:

Here we go again.

same topic wrapped in a different cover!!!

"Watching YouTubers", seriously. That will get you nowhere. They are just content creators out there for revenue!

Do you include real world pilots in that statement? Like flightdeck2sim for example?

That would be highly insulting to a professional pilot.

4 minutes ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

Do you include real world pilots in that statement? Like flightdeck2sim for example?

That would be highly insulting to a professional pilot.

So are you saying that professional pilots are not trying to make money on YT as well?

Flightdeck2sim has a members only section for some vids, that requires money to view, correct?

Plus, his statement (to me) was to address simply "watching" YT in general to base one's opinion about sim without actually "trying" it for yourself. As there are many content creators out there passing their opinions (good or bad) with the "main" objective of building a subscription base and view counts to make money.

2 minutes ago, OverTheEDJ said:

So are you saying that professional pilots are not trying to make money on YT as well?

Making money is useful extra income but to be successful at that you need a degree of piloting competence plus the ability to make your videos interesting and informative.

The person I was responding to was lumping all YT simmers into the same category without making any exceptions.